Shock help please!
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
From: Pennsylvania
Shock help please! To all...I am looking to replace shocks at all 4 corners. Car is a 1998 TransAm WS6. LS2 heads port and polished. UMI sways front and rear, lower control arms, pan hard rod all roto poly, torque arm. Pushing close to 500RWHP. I am original owner and just broke 13,000 miles, never raced...just my weekend toy.
So I have been considering Viking coil overs, Koni Sports. I know 2 totally different animals. Looking for all thoughts, pros/cons, other ideas etc. Please help! Thank you in advance to all who respond!
So I have been considering Viking coil overs, Koni Sports. I know 2 totally different animals. Looking for all thoughts, pros/cons, other ideas etc. Please help! Thank you in advance to all who respond!
I feel like I had this conversation earlier today.... 
Like I told you on the phone, your first decision is if you can or will make use of coil-overs and what extra they bring. Beyond that you are buying shocks and springs. If you like the car at stock height, or some height you have seen lowering springs sit at, or just aren't that particular and want something that works, then coil-overs are wasting your money. But hey, some folks are just hell bent on having *COIL-OVERS*.
If you opt for that, remember you are buying shocks. Dampers, and they most certainly are not all the same any more than tires are all the same, or Beer, or people with similar backgrounds, etc.
And since shocks matter, big time, to how the car drives, skimping on shocks to get coil-overs (I.E. getting cheap coil-overs) is not a particularly wise plan IMHO.
Like I told you on the phone, your first decision is if you can or will make use of coil-overs and what extra they bring. Beyond that you are buying shocks and springs. If you like the car at stock height, or some height you have seen lowering springs sit at, or just aren't that particular and want something that works, then coil-overs are wasting your money. But hey, some folks are just hell bent on having *COIL-OVERS*.
If you opt for that, remember you are buying shocks. Dampers, and they most certainly are not all the same any more than tires are all the same, or Beer, or people with similar backgrounds, etc.
And since shocks matter, big time, to how the car drives, skimping on shocks to get coil-overs (I.E. getting cheap coil-overs) is not a particularly wise plan IMHO.
__________________
www.stranoparts.com --814-849-3450
Results matter. Talk is cheap. We are miles beyond the success anyone else has had with the 4th gens, and C5, C6, C7 Corvettes,
10 SCCA Solo National Championships, 2008 Driver of they Year, 2012 Driver of Eminence
13 SCCA Pro Solo Nationals Championships
2023 UMI King of the Mountain Champion
www.stranoparts.com --814-849-3450
Results matter. Talk is cheap. We are miles beyond the success anyone else has had with the 4th gens, and C5, C6, C7 Corvettes,
10 SCCA Solo National Championships, 2008 Driver of they Year, 2012 Driver of Eminence
13 SCCA Pro Solo Nationals Championships
2023 UMI King of the Mountain Champion
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
From: Pennsylvania
Sam, appreciate your reply on this forum and yes you and I had spoke earlier in the day. What I was really looking for was some people with daily/weekend drivers who may be using any one of these setups to get some feedback from them. Wanting to learn more before wasting money on something which may not be good for me. Just trying to get feed back sir! With all do respect!
Uh, well the issue still comes down you having to decide if coil-overs are something you would make use of. Nobody else's opinion matters there, it is your car.
Forgive me, but I spend far, far, far too much time trying to sort through things that people are told on the internet and that generally hold a huge lack of detail.
I do get trying to take a poll, but if you haven't noticed, polls aren't worth much in the grand scheme of things. They are opinions, gathered largely from people you don't know and can't actually speak to, about your car and how they think you'd like something, when you've never met. We've spoken, and that's more interaction than most folks have here, and I surely could not make a 100% solid recommendation for you, and this is what I do. You need to consider the monies, the things you gain or don't get for that money and if you will use those things. Then, and only then, can you decide for yourself.
Forgive me, but I spend far, far, far too much time trying to sort through things that people are told on the internet and that generally hold a huge lack of detail.
I do get trying to take a poll, but if you haven't noticed, polls aren't worth much in the grand scheme of things. They are opinions, gathered largely from people you don't know and can't actually speak to, about your car and how they think you'd like something, when you've never met. We've spoken, and that's more interaction than most folks have here, and I surely could not make a 100% solid recommendation for you, and this is what I do. You need to consider the monies, the things you gain or don't get for that money and if you will use those things. Then, and only then, can you decide for yourself.
__________________
www.stranoparts.com --814-849-3450
Results matter. Talk is cheap. We are miles beyond the success anyone else has had with the 4th gens, and C5, C6, C7 Corvettes,
10 SCCA Solo National Championships, 2008 Driver of they Year, 2012 Driver of Eminence
13 SCCA Pro Solo Nationals Championships
2023 UMI King of the Mountain Champion
www.stranoparts.com --814-849-3450
Results matter. Talk is cheap. We are miles beyond the success anyone else has had with the 4th gens, and C5, C6, C7 Corvettes,
10 SCCA Solo National Championships, 2008 Driver of they Year, 2012 Driver of Eminence
13 SCCA Pro Solo Nationals Championships
2023 UMI King of the Mountain Champion
TECH Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 5,798
Likes: 16
From: St.Charles MO
Like you said, two different animals. The only thing the vikings will do better is transfer weight, thats it. So if you are willing to sacrifice ride quality, feel, and handling for weight transfer then you will like the vikings better, however at that rate you can run stock worn out shocks and get weight transfer too. Would you rather have your car feel more like a truck, or a BMW M3?
These thread always start controversy because 1.) sponsors are trying to sell drag shocks as "all purpose" shocks and 2.) some people who have used them and have nothing to compare them to sometimes like them, or are running slicks/skinnes/no front swaybar and have a different opinion on what "handling/driving fine" is - these are also the type of people that usually are baffled when they rode in my car when it was otherwise totally stock except for koni sports, and thinking I must have either a secret cage under the interior or "corvette conversion suspension" because there is just no way shocks transformed the car to the point it was that rock solid and handled/felt that good.
Ill tell you this, read the reviews that other have written from buying (wasting money on) vikings and then buying actual good shocks.
So I guess it's time to talk to myself some... Ok, not really.
Here's the thing with Vikings. They make some stuff that is really, really stiff, the opposite of weight transfer. That said, and I know folks that have them, I've driven on them, I race against a guy with them a lot on his Corvette too. They aren't particular sensitive to piston velocity, and the adjustment doesn't happen on the piston of the shock which is something that costs more money to do, but helps. You want to change what is happening at the piston, not at the foot valve if you can. It makes for a shock curve you can control more finely.
What does all that mean? Simply, Vikings can give you control. But the tradeoff is at a level of damping that is say the same as a Koni, the Koni is less harsh. Then there is the whole matter of them not being gas-charged. That works the same as a radiator cap on the coolant. The gas keeps the oil under pressure which means it doesn't foam as easily. Oil that foams doesn't offer damping like oil that isn't. See also why you don't want your engine oil to foam. That is called shock fade, and it's not any better than if your power fades, or your brakes fade.
Here's the thing with Vikings. They make some stuff that is really, really stiff, the opposite of weight transfer. That said, and I know folks that have them, I've driven on them, I race against a guy with them a lot on his Corvette too. They aren't particular sensitive to piston velocity, and the adjustment doesn't happen on the piston of the shock which is something that costs more money to do, but helps. You want to change what is happening at the piston, not at the foot valve if you can. It makes for a shock curve you can control more finely.
What does all that mean? Simply, Vikings can give you control. But the tradeoff is at a level of damping that is say the same as a Koni, the Koni is less harsh. Then there is the whole matter of them not being gas-charged. That works the same as a radiator cap on the coolant. The gas keeps the oil under pressure which means it doesn't foam as easily. Oil that foams doesn't offer damping like oil that isn't. See also why you don't want your engine oil to foam. That is called shock fade, and it's not any better than if your power fades, or your brakes fade.
__________________
www.stranoparts.com --814-849-3450
Results matter. Talk is cheap. We are miles beyond the success anyone else has had with the 4th gens, and C5, C6, C7 Corvettes,
10 SCCA Solo National Championships, 2008 Driver of they Year, 2012 Driver of Eminence
13 SCCA Pro Solo Nationals Championships
2023 UMI King of the Mountain Champion
www.stranoparts.com --814-849-3450
Results matter. Talk is cheap. We are miles beyond the success anyone else has had with the 4th gens, and C5, C6, C7 Corvettes,
10 SCCA Solo National Championships, 2008 Driver of they Year, 2012 Driver of Eminence
13 SCCA Pro Solo Nationals Championships
2023 UMI King of the Mountain Champion
Sam, appreciate your reply on this forum and yes you and I had spoke earlier in the day. What I was really looking for was some people with daily/weekend drivers who may be using any one of these setups to get some feedback from them. Wanting to learn more before wasting money on something which may not be good for me. Just trying to get feed back sir! With all do respect!
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I haven't been on vikings but Ive been on the shock they are modeled after and work the same way: QA1s.
Like you said, two different animals. The only thing the vikings will do better is transfer weight, thats it. So if you are willing to sacrifice ride quality, feel, and handling for weight transfer then you will like the vikings better, however at that rate you can run stock worn out shocks and get weight transfer too. Would you rather have your car feel more like a truck, or a BMW M3?
These thread always start controversy because 1.) sponsors are trying to sell drag shocks as "all purpose" shocks and 2.) some people who have used them and have nothing to compare them to sometimes like them, or are running slicks/skinnes/no front swaybar and have a different opinion on what "handling/driving fine" is - these are also the type of people that usually are baffled when they rode in my car when it was otherwise totally stock except for koni sports, and thinking I must have either a secret cage under the interior or "corvette conversion suspension" because there is just no way shocks transformed the car to the point it was that rock solid and handled/felt that good.
Ill tell you this, read the reviews that other have written from buying (wasting money on) vikings and then buying actual good shocks.
Like you said, two different animals. The only thing the vikings will do better is transfer weight, thats it. So if you are willing to sacrifice ride quality, feel, and handling for weight transfer then you will like the vikings better, however at that rate you can run stock worn out shocks and get weight transfer too. Would you rather have your car feel more like a truck, or a BMW M3?
These thread always start controversy because 1.) sponsors are trying to sell drag shocks as "all purpose" shocks and 2.) some people who have used them and have nothing to compare them to sometimes like them, or are running slicks/skinnes/no front swaybar and have a different opinion on what "handling/driving fine" is - these are also the type of people that usually are baffled when they rode in my car when it was otherwise totally stock except for koni sports, and thinking I must have either a secret cage under the interior or "corvette conversion suspension" because there is just no way shocks transformed the car to the point it was that rock solid and handled/felt that good.
Ill tell you this, read the reviews that other have written from buying (wasting money on) vikings and then buying actual good shocks.
U mentioned that spionsors like to sell vikings. Cant say ive seen that much lately. People may be starting to notice that they are no different than qa1s, never had experience with them but trust ur opinion on them, and that viking warriors have no performance benefit "ON THE STREET"
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Launching!
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 283
Likes: 0
Dude just do urself a favor and get koni yellows. I put them on all 4 corners last yr and i love them the car rides and handles so much better. My car is a low milege car to 27k and it handles so much better and i havent even really played around with the adjustments. All i did is shocks no springs and big difference. Unless ur gona b doin alot of drag racing id say **** on coilovers
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
From: Pennsylvania
Want to thank everyone who was kind enough to comment on this. Feel like I opened a can of worms...something I definitely did not want to do. Since my car sees less than 500 miles a year, never been raced and never will be by me...I am just gonna leave everything stock for the time being. Again thank you all!